Early stroke sign and symptom recognition tool for Spanish-speaking populations developed by UTHealth Houston shows promise

Jennifer Beauchamp, PhD, RN, associate professor in the Department of Research at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston and first author of the study. (Photo by UTHealth Houston)

The Spanish-language stroke-recognition acronym RÁPIDO™, which was developed at UTHealth Houston, shows encouraging results in boosting early stroke awareness among Spanish-speaking adults.

The results were recently published in STROKE, a Journal of the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association.

Researchers led by Jennifer Beauchamp, PhD, RN, associate professor in the Department of Research at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, evaluated the impact of RÁPIDO, which has been nationally adopted by the American Heart Association with two other Spanish-language stroke recognition tools, AHORA and PARA Stroke. The acronyms spell out signs of stroke and are intended to promote both stroke recognition awareness and a call to action for adults experiencing signs of stroke and to dial 911 immediately.  

The goal of this nationwide study was to gain feedback from health care providers who treat stroke patients and the Spanish-speaking population across the United States to optimize the acronyms before determining whether they improve stroke awareness knowledge and retention of that knowledge in the Spanish-speaking community.

All three acronyms increased participants’ ability to recognize stroke signs,  as well as participants’ confidence in the need to call emergency services, a critical factor in reducing stroke-related disability and death.

“What this study showed us is that being sensitive and linguistically supportive of one’s culture increases stroke awareness knowledge and retention of that knowledge,” said Beauchamp, who is the first author of the study and the Nancy B. Willerson Distinguished Professor in Nursing at Cizik School of Nursing.

Though stroke is the fifth-leading cause of death in the country, it is the fourth-leading cause of death for Hispanic men and the third for Hispanic women, according to the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association. Hispanic adults are at a higher risk for the disease because of limited access to health care, unmanaged health risk factors, lower health literacy rates, cultural barriers, and socioeconomic determinants of health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hispanic stroke patients experience longer delays to hospital arrival than non-Hispanic stroke patients, as well as poorer outcomes following stroke, according to a study co-authored by UTHealth Houston researchers and published in the Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases.

RÁPIDO stands for:

R - Rostro caído (face drooping)

Á - Álteración del equilibrio (loss of balance, or lack of coordination)

P - Pérdida de fuerza en el brazo (arm weakness)

I - Impedimento visual repentino (sudden vision difficulty)

D - Dificultad para hablar (slurred or strange speech)

O - Obtén ayuda, llama al 911 (get help, call 911)

RÁPIDO was created in 2021 when Beauchamp’s nursing students and research team were writing Spanish subtitles for an English stroke education video. They realized BE-FAST (Balance, Eyes, Face, Arm, Speech, and Time), an adaptation of FAST, did not translate well into Spanish.

“Our RÁPIDO work has created a movement emphasizing the importance of cultural and linguistic adaptations of stroke awareness education across the nation,” Beauchamp said. “This work started out as a small educational project, but to see where it started from and where it is now is incredible. We are currently working on other adaptations of stroke awareness education across the United States and worldwide.”

For more information about RÁPIDO and stroke awareness, visit www.stroke.org/rapido.

For more about UTHealth Houston’s history of RÁPIDO, visit www.uth.edu/stroke-institute/resources/rapido-resources.